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Chara Remains Focused

Liberec, Czech Republic -- On Tuesday morning, it was a focused Zdeno Chara who met the media in front of his locker stall at O2 Arena in Prague.

The always-intense Chara spoke briefly about being closer to his family's home in Slovakia.

"It's been good," he said, quietly. "I haven't seen my parents yet, but I had a chance to meet with a few friends and it's always nice to see them even though it hasn't been that long since the summer.

"It's (good) to be in kind of a 'home' kind of environment."

Chara softened a little when asked about the city of Prague and the things he likes the most about about the NHL Premier's host city.

"Oh everything," said Chara of the pedestrian friendly metropolis. "You can walk around anywhere and It's really easy to get to different sight seeing (spots).

"And, obviously, the food is pretty good."

But it was obvious that Chara's thoughts lay elsewhere, like the rink in Liberec, where the B's will play their final exhibition contest of the season on Tuesday night.

The captain was asked if it were difficult to make the mental move from tourist to NHLer.

"No. I mean you have to be professional. You have to be able to get ready and focus for practices and upcoming games," he said. "At the same time when you have time off you can enjoy it, but you have to make sure you separate those two."

He also expects stiff competition from the club in Liberec.

"Yeah, we expect the best out of them," he said. "For sure it's going to be a good chance for us.

"Every time we play teams like this, you know -- for them -- it's probably [one of the biggest] games of their lives and we should approach it the same way.

"We saw what happened when playing in Belfast. They played their hearts out and they played a really good game.

"And we want to be facing teams that want to show that they can play against NHL teams -- so we have to be ready for that."